


As The Clock Winds Down

by maxthebd



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: Death will always collect, Emotional Maturity, Eugene has a sailor's mouth, Eugene is having a worst day, F/M, Gentle Age Bump, Gore, Karma - Freeform, Mai is not having a good day, Multi, Necromancy, Oliver does miss Japan, Potential Spoilers, Resurrection, Sexual Content, Witchcraft, psychic powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:35:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25386910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxthebd/pseuds/maxthebd
Summary: First, his brother is an asshole to one of the sweetest people he's ever known.And then Eugene Davis wakes up in Japan. Where he died. Where he DID Die. Right?
Relationships: Eugene Davis/Taniyama Mai, Oliver Davis/Taniyama Mai
Comments: 24
Kudos: 52





	1. Prologue: A Cheap Thought

_Oliver Davis is an idiot_.

Eugene felt the agony reverberate across Mai’s aura because her wavelength felt like _home_ and allowed him to hunker down and regain enough strength to contact his brother again.

Just to berate him for breaking a girl’s heart. One heart he was particularly fond of and his moron of a brother just had to leave in pieces because Oliver was goal-oriented at the best of times and a complete _asshole_ at the worst.

He did get it. This was his flesh and blood after all. All Noll wanted was to bring Eugene's body home, anyone in the way of that be _damned_.

“You’ll see him again,” Oliver mentioned before Lin spirited him away to board a flight back to London and away from what Eugene swore was home and _damn_ his brother.

 _Damn_ Oliver Davis.

Eugene ignored any summon Oliver tried and if anyone asked, he’d tell them his brother’s spiritual sensitivities needed work.

Other sensitivities too.

Eugene didn’t miss Lin’s passing Mai an unmarked box, hushing her with an amused glint in his eyes before Naru and he left. At least one person at The Society of Psychical Research was on the burgeoning medium’s side and wouldn’t abandon her like his goddamn brother clearly did.

He would not consider himself to be a vengeful person, but he had forever on his hands, he was not above making his brother’s waking hours either an absolute hell or mess with him enough for amusement in the void since Oliver took him away from Mai.

At least until he could convince Oliver to go back to Japan because The Society did not just _leave_ an untrained psychic on her own. They send in Lin to train her, Lin scares the bejeezus out of her as he did with Oliver and himself, and then, in the end, SPR is left with a scarily-apt psychic on their hands with the protection of a sorcerer behind her.

So why wasn't that _happening_?

Oliver.

Oliver was ruining things again just like he did when he refused to use honorifics with Mai. Not because he knew better, he went through the same language lessons Eugene did, but because Noll _felt_ like it. The rules that should have saved them, Mai included, broken because if it didn't apply to his goal.

Oliver Davis didn't _care_.

Yes, Eugene loved his brother fiercely, but right that instant, he _fucking hated him_.

Which may explain why things felt warm. Like a warm blanket started to wrap around his torso and gently tug him elsewhere. It felt like when Mai stepped into the void but this energy signature didn’t match up.

The strange energy gained intensity when he saw not one, but two masses enter the void, coming his way as faceless but glowing beings. If he didn't call attention to himself, they'd pass by him as every spirit did.

But then they _saw him_ and suddenly... 

...Everything just really _fucking hurt_.


	2. Chapter 1: Weird Things Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't look at me. I'm just sitting here waiting for 'You have Zero Voicemails' to update.

_Wrong_.

This felt _wrong_. First of all, Taniyama Mai had no idea why she was even observing what looked like a ritual, only to watch in horror while two monks unboxed a body bag. 

“They froze him?” The one with black hair back in a low ponytail asked the bald second monk, who set down the crowbar and a panel of plywood on the ground.

“Yeah, he was submerged in a lake for two years, it was the only way they could preserve his body. Our patron must have paid a fortune to intercept him in time."

“Did you bring the replacement?” The monk then turned toward the shadowed part of the room and Mai felt her stomach roll with the implications.

A faceless man dropped a white, sheet-wrapped, tall human-sized bundle onto the dirt floor in the middle of a white chalk circle. “Took me a few weeks to find the right body. Should we unwrap him?”

“Yeah, we need to make sure the body structure is similar. His soul and the spell will handle the rest.” The first monk unwrapped the white sheet to reveal what looked like either a third year in high school or a young uni student. Mai could see _his face_. Peaceful in his repose and vivid red now spilling from his neck from where the monk, now murderer ran a dagger across it. His blood drained onto the ground, lighting up various lines with soft white light.

“Now our man of the hour.”

They unzipped the body bag.

_No._

_No no no no._

“No,” she whispered, feeling her world drop out from under her when she sees the frozen remains of Eugene Davis. His desiccated face coated in a layer of ice crystals and his skin blanched in shades of gray due to the freezing process. 

_Oh no_.

That explained the room’s energy. Why everything had felt so _wrong_ for the last few weeks. He went missing from her dreams years ago, but she always felt him hovering on the edge of her consciousness even after Oliver and Lin left Japan. At least who she thought was Eugene Davis.

She didn’t notice the shimmering violet miasma roiling at the edges of the room until she saw the fox fires along the outline of the room, circling around as if to watch what was next.

“We just need to add power to the spell,” Ponytail nodded to the faceless help and watched them shut the double-shoji doors. “Ready?” He asked his companion.

The second monk walked up behind the kneeling monk and took a ritual dagger across Ponytail’s neck.

“No!” Mai screamed into the ether, watching the murderer look around as if he heard her.

”We are now,” he spoke to the room. The chant leaving his lips grew garbled once the monk’s blood hit the ground.

The soft white lines snapped a brilliant blue, the miasma growing to encompass all three corpses and turning from deep violet to the same brilliant, blinding blue.

Mai’s screams were quickly drowned out by the sheer power and noise of the spell taking hold. The miasma outgrew the room on the spiritual plane and drifted closer to her, beyond the fox fires. The blue lines also grew beyond the room into the void with her. She could feel her instincts screaming at her to _run_. _Wake up._

She had to wake up. She had to wake up now! Quickly searching for her own tether back to the physical plane she failed to see the blue lines of the spell quickly form under her.

 _The final piece,_ something whispered just as the miasma found her.

_Black._

Peace was all she knew while her world went _black_.

* * *

“Mai,” hands pawed at her arms, eventually cradling her face, their touch successfully dragging her out of the void and back into her own bed.

No, not her bed.

Yasuhara’s bed, who knelt over her, cradling her face and wiping the tears away while he waited for her to snap out of the vision. It would have looked cute to an outsider if they had no idea how the two ended up with this routine in the first place. 

She spent the night after being able to take another night of waking up in a pool of blood she knew wasn’t hers. Answering the door in blood-splattered pajamas to see Yasuhara pale and immediately launch into overprotective friend-mode only to drag her over to his flat, throw a set of clothes at her and hustle her to his shower. 

Mai could guess just who the blood belonged to now.

A nameless student sacrifice.

Clinging to Osamu’s hands, she squeezed them tight and breathed against the bile trying to crawl up her throat. “Yasu,” she whined and let him pull her up into his arms. “Did I ruin your sheets?”

“No blood, just some whimpering and well, this.” He pushed her away to look over her. “Also, not quite how I expect to find a woman in my bed, but good for us, I happen to like you.”

 _Nevermind_ , he was fine.

Mai rolled her eyes and moved her pillow to lean it against the wall, so she could lean somewhere after scooting back out from between Yasu’s knees. He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the notepad on top of it.

Mai’s dream journal. “Taking notes this time?"

“Your handwriting is terrible,” he answered, moving to sit next to Mai, ready to offer physical support because he knew the crash was coming. “Now talk.”

“I saw Eugene. Well, Eugene's remains. They said he was frozen and I could see the ice crystals. He looked so... it was unnerving. The place smelled like a temple but had a dirt floor and there was this miasma around the room. There were two monks and one other person for help. And then the help left and the bald monk killed the one with the ponytail to ‘power’ the spell.”

“Did you catch the ritual itself?”

“I think it was already in progress. They had a summoning circle on the ground in chalk, it turned blue when the blood hit it. I think they sacrificed what looked like a third-year highschooler but I think they were fulfilling the requirements. Bald Monk chanted something before the miasma found me.” She paused and stared at the dresser where the middle drawer was hers considering how often she shared a bed with Yasuhara these days. The days where she pretended he was hers for a few hours. She tried to rehash the last moments of the vision but something felt like it was just drifting beyond her reach.

Mai looked back to Yasuhara, still scribbling in her journal in his precise hand. “Osamu,” she whispered and leaned against his bare shoulder, a lesson learned after a vision’s resultant blood spray caught his own pajamas. Mai had gotten over the feeling of skin after that but sometimes, she would still catch herself blushing at the supposed impropriety. “I think I got caught in the spell.”

His hand stopped writing and clapped her journal shut. “Well hell,” he answered her unspoken question. Some details didn’t need to be written down for evidential reasons. Lifting his shoulder, Mai pulled away long enough for him to tuck her up under that arm and against his side. “Then I guess we’ll figure out how to get you out of the spell.”

Vibrations rang through the flat’s sleeping nook, Mai’s phone dancing off of the small table and onto the tatami mats below.

She leaned over the edge of the bed and saw the ID light up.

“Monk,” she looked up over her shoulder at Yasuhara, who playfully leered and caught a finger in the back waistband of her sleep shorts. 

Just in case she fell off, he joked the last time she did this and did fall off of the bed. She knew better this time. Grabbing her phone from the ground, she swiped to accept the call and flipped the audio to the speaker. “Hey Monk, you’re on speaker. I’m at Yasu’s.”

“Ah, hey Royal Terror.”

“Hello, love,” Yasuhara purred, pulling Mai back under his arm and setting her phone on his knee. He’d never understand why Lin gifted her a top of the line smartphone, but he had to give the man serious credit. The newest phone he sent Mai had amazing call quality.

“I wish you’d knock that crap off,” Houshou Takigawa sighed into the phone. “Sunshine, I was hoping to catch you before the weekend. Do you have room in your oh-so-busy schedule for an overnight weekend at a temple in the middle of nowhere?”

Ah, that explained Ayako's behavior the last time Mai had lunch with her at the hospital. The doctor had mentioned Takigawa deciding to spend three months back at his home shrine at Mt. Koya and she wasn’t thrilled about it due to her heavy rotation schedule. Visiting him required an overnight Ayako was unable to swing without forcing her hand and chancing the ire of her colleagues.

“I may be able to pencil you in, what’s going on?” She hears her companion’s snickering and elbowed him in the side. It failed to hush his laughter. 

“I don’t want to get too into it on the phone. I’ve sent some yen to your bank account. Buy yourself a week’s JR Pass and come down to Osaka tonight on the Shinkansen. I’ll pick you up at the station. I wouldn’t subject you to the boredom if I didn’t think I needed a little sunshine in my life.”

She looked at Yasuhara, his smirk dropping because he read between the same lines she did. “I guess I’ll see you in about five hours? Do I need anything important?”

“Just yourself, Taniyama. You can leave your boyfriend at home. He’s a threat to this entire mountain.”

“Ignore him, my darling,” Yasuhara clasped her hand and gently cupped her face with its brother. “He means ‘treat’, I swear.”

“Oh, I meant ‘threat’ and you know it. Okay, you two, I’ve gotta’ run. Yasuhara, behave. At least until you drop her off at the station. And then do whatever uni students actually do on weekends. Later!” The call ended quickly. Yasu let her go to toss her phone toward the foot of the bed where Mai stared at it curiously. 

“Did that call seem rushed to you?”

“As he said, he needs some sunshine in his life. Which means, Sunshine, pack and then look up departure times or just do you just want to book at the station?” Yasuhara leaned back and stretched along the wall, brown eyes casually watching Mai. 

Who slid out of the bed and walked to the chest of drawers. “Book when I get there, Temple Threat,” Mai quipped and opened the drawer earmarked as hers.

“Washed leggings are in there and you can just steal one of my old shirts.” He spoke, only to yawn halfway through. “I’ll be in the shower. Want to start coffee?”

“Sure,” she shrugged off the t-shirt, dropping it into the laundry bag next to the dresser. Waiting for the water to turn on after he closed the washroom door, she stepped out of her sleep shorts and dove into the drawer for panties and a chemise she knew she left here.

It was autumn, so skirts in Osaka weren’t quite a good idea, she mused and dug for the pair of leggings she also knew was in there. Stepping into those, she then hit Yasu’s closet for the shirt he mentioned, seeing an oversized sweater she knew he didn’t wear (but was sized for her) and a pair of leggings draped over the hanger inside the sweater. 

“Some days, Yasuhara scares me,” she whispered to herself. Pulling down the sweater and sliding it on, she looked at herself in the hall mirror and decided it would work for the three-hour train ride.

Grabbing her knapsack, she shoved more clothes in only to pause and grab the t-shirt from the laundry bag. Yasuhara Osamu had no spiritual ability whatsoever, but his stability rivaled Naru’s on a good day.

Her thoughts staggered to a halt. 

She would love to say she hadn’t thought of Oliver Davis in months. But the doctor and his distractingly attractive face came to mind often. More than she knew was emotionally healthy.

Her phone chirped a text alert. 

Speaking of Oliver Davis.

Koujo Lin: **Monthly check-in call. Could we postpone it for a few days?**

Now there was a solid presence in her life, even if it was almost only a voice on her phone. She typed back a response and sent him a calendar invite, the easiest way to schedule a call without having to speak to the daunting sorcerer.

“You’d think after two years, he wouldn’t be as intense-”

A hand clapped on her shoulder, shocking her out of her reverie and forcing her back against a warm body - “oh my god, Yasuhara.”

“Sorry, I called for you, but you zoned. Coffee ready?”

“Crap!” She yelped and ran toward the kitchenette to pack the Moka pot. 

Yasuhara watched Mai leave before picking up her phone and knapsack. He buried the device in the bag, otherwise, it’d be forgotten, and tucked in her charging cord and power brick because a rushed Taniyama Mai was a forgetful Taniyama Mai.

He looked at the knapsack’s contents and then rifled through his closet, tossing more clothes for his own benefit. It was a petty move on his part, but he knew what the clothes would mean to Takigawa and it was half intentional. At least he would say that much to Mai’s face.

Yasuhara dropped the bag by the washroom door and helped Mai go about what felt like would be their last normal morning together.

* * *

Houshou Takigawa sat next to the occupied futon and whispered a chant to see if the person in front of him was truly who he thought it was. He waved the _Vajra_ over the blanketed form and felt nothing except whispers of spiritual energy and familiar ritual magic that sang of his own people.

 **_Bzzzzzt_**.

He flipped his phone over to see Yasuhara being nosy. 

“Sorry, brat, but you like to email the Home Office far too much,” he intoned and ignored the uni student’s text for the one from Mai. Yasuhara had dropped her off at the station and she had been on the train for at least an hour.

“Mai,” a whisper left the sleeping teen in front of him. 

“You look just like him,” Takigawa brushed black hair away from the form's sweat-soaked forehead. “But you’re not him, are you?”

“Mai, please,” Eugene whispered once more, tossing his head fitfully in his slumber. 

The monk lit a stick of incense and waited for Mai to make it to Osaka, maintaining his quiet vigilance until she arrived.

* * *

The wind blew through Market Street Cemetery, slicing through the rain-wet gravestones and swirling around the boot-clad legs of Dr. Oliver Davis, who stood in front of the gleaming headstone marking the cremation plot and set down the week’s new flowers and a waterproof blanket. 

His parents considered it mourning.

He never bothered to correct them. Sitting against the headstone, Oliver looked out over the rest of the cemetery and watched the early-risers move along the pathways. Hiding here, with his morning cup of tea from the park’s northern Cafe, was part of his West Kensington routine before he headed into the SPR offices to research the latest case on his desk. Madoka joked the case was boring old body snatching, which he was sure he retained only because he felt that same level of boredom she did.

It grounded him to be near his brother before he subjected himself to hours of badly self-brewed tea (proof-positive Taniyama Mai was a witch in her own right) and Madoka’s version of moping around the office because she couldn’t travel for another three months until her visa renewed. 

One would think with the supposed object of her desires in the same office, she wouldn’t have been so quick to run away, but some days, he debated if Koujo actively returned her announced affections.

Even Oliver could admit he was ready to travel again because, after two years, he felt suffocated on English soil.

It didn’t help that he felt... _incomplete_. Which didn’t quite match how he felt, but fit enough to explain enough of it?.

Dr. Martin Davis assumed his son was bored. 

Dr. Luella Davis wished her son to take a trip out of London for the sake of the collective office’s sanity because she was his mother and loved him dearly, but he wasn’t _present_ half of the time and she worried for him.

Lin even dropped weekly hints that Oliver needed to tone down his restlessness and burn off the excess energy before he destroyed a room.

The 21-year old professor watched the clouds gather on the horizon, signaling incoming rain and checked his watch.

Not quite 7:00 in the morning, which meant 15:00 in Tokyo.

Bright citrus unexpectedly coated his tongue and he almost spat out the artfully brewed Assam he swore he ordered. Quickly reading the ticket taped to the cardboard jacket, he reread the printout.

He ordered Assam. He initially tasted Assam.

But why did he just taste Earl Grey?

Cinnamon eyes flashed in his memory and forced him back to his feet. He fished out his phone and looked to see a message from Lin, customary for the morning. 

He hadn’t thought of Taniyama Mai in _weeks_.

Oliver sipped the tea again, once again tasting the earthy, bold Assam, and winced as he scrolled through his notifications. 

_Liar_. He hadn’t thought about Taniyama Mai in ~~days~~ , _lie_ , minutes.

One day he’d stop lying to himself because he just thought about her and her personally-blended Earl Grey that he intrinsically missed as much as he missed the maker.

Today wasn’t going to be that day. He shook the blanket to clean off most of the water and tucked it under an arm. He’d ask Lin if there were any known disturbances in the community later today. Maybe it was something in the air?

* * *

_Wood_.

Old wooden beams greet him when his eyes pry themselves open and his first reaction is to jackknife up, unsettling the white _kakefuton_ and all he could do was gasp.

This wasn’t the afterlife.

This wasn’t the void.

 _So where the hell is he?_ It smells slightly of incense and… he sniffs and that smells like sulfur. 

He can smell things. Looking down, Eugene clapped his hands against his chest. He can feel and see the white yukata covering his dignity. The light pulse of ritual magic sliding through his own energy channels unsettled him. It felt both disconcerting and novel at the same time. Seeing as he was whole and very much alive, he took stock of what he _knew_ or could at least remember.

The car. He remembers the car and the pain of impact when she hit him.

He remembers... the lake. If he were being honest with himself, he would rather forget the part where he was thrown into the said lake. 

He died wearing blue.

Mai’s vivid imagination superimposed the suits and business attire Oliver preferred much to Eugene's amusement, but he drowned in denim trousers and a blue henley. He remembers dying. He would rather forget actually dying. Pressing hands against his face and up through his hair, Eugene tugged on black strands and winced at the resulting pain.

_How?_

How the _hell?_

Looking around the room and feeling the history whispering through its walls, he spotted the small mirror next to him and caught sight of his own body, not quite what he remembered, but older and with his same face. Flashes of cinnamon caught his attention.

He remembers the void.

He could never forget - “Mai”, he shouts into the empty room.

Voices.

Two.

He hears rustling on the other side of the double-wide shoji doors spanning the opposite wall. He sees two shadows and wonders briefly if they were here to collect his soul for the second time once and for all.

He’d never guide Taniyama Mai ever again. The thought was sobering.

“I told you he kept whispering your name, Sunshine,” a baritone voice was all he heard before the doors slid open and he came face to face with Taniyama Mai in the flesh.

He could smell her, smell the sweat and skin, and the cologne from her sweater. Feel her aura tentatively reach out and sing against his skin. The tears, _wait_ , _tears_ , dead bodies can’t cry, hot in his eyes, watching Mai run to him. She slid to her knees next to his futon with a whispered “Gene,” springing from her pink lips.

Pink. She was always so washed out in the void.

_Colors weren’t colors in the void._

“Now we just get to explain to Naru how his brother is back here in Japan.” He knows the monk's name. He's seen the long-haired man in Mai's visions and Noll's summons, but the name escapes him. Eugene does not miss how closely the monk is watching Mai's reactions to the supposedly dead medium sitting on a futon in the middle of might be the monk's Temple.

The monk was also easy to ignore.

Eugene pressed his hand gently against Mai’s oh so warm and tear-damp face. She never felt this soft in the void. This…

... _Real_.

He watched her very alive, warm brown eyes, her eyes were brown, searching his face for something - that she must have found because she pressed her cheek into his hand and willingly let him pull her into an embrace.

Eugene Davis melted, sobbing his relief against the crown of Mai’s hair. He could feel the strands against his face. Feel the tears running down his face again.

“You’re alive,” she whispered. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.” Crooning, she gently pushed him back onto the futon. 

Wait, no, was she leaving? "Mai," his voice cracked and dry, he tried to pull her with him, not quite ready to watch her walk away from him after just seeing her again.

“I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to,” she grabbed his hand on her face and squeezed it. “I’m just getting comfy. You’re like a furnace.” She broadcast that she wanted to remove her sweater, watching his face shift from hesitant to welcoming because sharp eyes noticed the sweater was just an additional layer.

She watched the blush blossom on his face and shed her overshirt, leaving her in a black chemise and a pair of leggings. “Now I won’t roast,” she breathed, watching him lift the _kakefuton_ up for her. Mai immediately accepted the unspoken invitation and slid up against him on the futon, draping a gentle arm over his torso. “I don’t know _how you're here_ , but it is so nice to see you again.”

Eugene pulled her close and curled around her, sobs growing in volume and severity as he adjusted to his new reality with Taniyama Mai in it.

He _could_ feel again. He didn’t know how it happened. He didn’t _want_ to know why.

But _fuck_ , he could _feel_ _warm again_.


	3. Chapter 2: Durum Modus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yasuhara loses his favorite game to someone who not only has any issues with his own sexuality, he plays to win.

Matsuzaki Ayako heard her phone vibrate an alert before it started screaming, literally. Once she got a hold of Yasuhara Osamu, she'd kill him. Slapping her phone silent, she dragged it off of the nightstand and opened one eye to blearily stare at the screen.

Two missed calls.

Four texts.

One voicemail from Mai, who never left voicemails so she checked that first. 

“Ayako, this is going to be weird, but I’m at Mt. Koya and I was hoping you could send me some money for a JR Pass? We’re coming straight to you, I just don’t have the funds for a second one. Text me once you get this? So sorry about this!” Ayako turned the side lamp on and decided the world needed Dr. Matsuzaki awake at 8 o'clock in the morning on a Sunday. 

Oh, she adored Mai’s fierce independence, but this was odd, even for Mai. The 20-year-old orphan openly despised asking for financial help. Ayako and Houshou usually just strong-armed her into accepting it, guilt helped more than Ayako would admit. Lin topped the Miko and Monk pair when he added Mai to an international smartphone plan and if memory served, the _onmyouji_ just sent her one of the latest and greatest phones on the market. Most likely because he knew Mai would never bother upgrading on her own.

Now, the messages:

**Yasahara “Love of your Life” Osamu:** My Darling summoned Ghost Magnet to Osaka for the night. I hope they behave. I forgot to pack condoms. Think Takigawa will show restraint?

Yep, she is absolutely turning on biosecurity features later today. That menace was to never go near her phone again, at least where Ayako could see him. She responded with “ you adorable idiot, Takigawa knows better." She received an emoji that made her roll her eyes less than 30 seconds later. Yasu must have been bored. 

But also wasn't in Osaka with Mai, otherwise, he would have called with a video call featuring the duo.

 _Strange_ , those two were attached at the hip most days.

**Houshou Takigawa:** I hope you have the week off because we need your help. Sending Sunshine back to Tokyo with a new “friend”. it’s complicated.

Well, she did have the week off, but who the hell was “we”? And just who the hell was this new friend?

**Taniyama "Darling" Mai** : Before you assume anything, I am not possessed, he’s not possessed either, and could you please help me buy a JR Pass?

I’ll tell you what I can but it’s SUPER COMPLICATED! *0*;

Ayako wasted no time depositing the funds into Mai’s account before she bothered dialing the woman’s number, waiting for the call to connect before “Darling, what the hell is going on down there?”

She could hear rustling and a groan that was far too masculine to come from Mai. 

“Easy, it’s okay, Ayako's helping us get you to Tokyo,” Mai said, sounding like her phone was a bit away from her before coming closer and sounding more like she was holding her own phone. “Ayako, I need your help.”

“Are you safe?” Hackles up, Ayako went through the mental checklist she swore she’d always keep but seldom use since Davis and Lin were back in the UK. 

“I’m safe but it’s hard to explain,” the call beeped before it switched to video. Ayako threw on a pair of blue-light glasses and watched while Mai panned the screen to show Takigawa in full Buddhist Monk attire, pan around what should have been an empty tatami room, and down to a doubly-occupied futon containing Mai and Ayako almost dropped her phone in shock.

“How the hell-”

Twin glares from the call forced Ayako to adjust her own volume. “When, no, How the hell is Oliver Davis back in Japan?”

Takigawa bit his lower lip, trying to contain his own remark that would surely make her temper flare. 

The screen focused back on Mai, with what looked like the same man who broke their darling's heart on the futon behind her. “Ayako, this isn’t Naru. It’s Eugene, his twin.”

The pit of Ayako’s stomach dropped. “What the hell did you two do down there?”

“For once, Monk and I didn’t do anything. We can tell you what we know when we get back home. We’ll take the next train in after we get to Osaka. Could I please borrow your double futon?” Mai made one more request that Ayako couldn’t deny. She panned the phone down again to show the Davis twin with his face buried in Mai’s clothed (thank the gods) hip. Ayako could see his arms wrapped around Mai's thigh and waist to hold her close. The young medium winced at the Miko. “I know how it looks.”

“Sweetheart, we deal with ghosts and youkai on a regular basis. This looks adorable,” Ayako admitted. “I’ll bring over the futon set before you get back. Want me to meet you all at your flat?”

“Monk still has some things he needs to handle here so he’ll join us in two -no, three days. Ayako, thank you so much for this. All of this.” Mai gratefully looked at her camera. “We’ll see you soon?”

Ugh, why was Mai so damn cute? “Sure thing, sweetheart,” Ayako hung up and set her phone’s alarm for another hour and a half.

Two years and some things never change. Mai still being the queen of the understatement. Complicated? Spirits save them.

She flopped sideways onto the empty half of the bed and tried flirting with sleep again. She had a couple of hours.

She'd worry after she got some more sleep.

~*~*~

Mai tossed her phone onto the futon and petted Eugene’s head mindlessly while she figured out their next move.

Takigawa beat her to it. “Okay, let's get this guy up. He's been out for the last few days and would probably feel better after a soak in the onsen. Want me to take him?” He curled his legs under him to stand up. The audible creaks from his joints popped and filled the room with new noises.

Eugene Davis tightened his grip around Mai's waist, one dark blue eye visible snce they were talking about him. Mai looked down and curled a few strands of black hair around her fingers. “Up to you, Davis-san, ready for your first bath in fourish years?”

“Gene,” he answered, uncurling his arms from around Mai’s thigh and waist to sit up next to her. He fixed a solid gaze onto the petite medium. “My father is Davis-san. I’m just Gene. A bath after five years sounds fantastic. Just, let me try to stand up.”

“Take your time, we have sixish hours before we have to go anywhere.” Takigawa stood awkwardly nearby and saw Eugene’s obvious reluctance to leave the futon, much less the room. He could only imagine how the kid, err, the young man felt after five years of not being on this mortal coil. Mai stood first and held a hand down to him, helping him rise slowly.

Leaning back against the wall, the monk watched the formerly-deceased Davis twin tower over by Mai by at least 25 centimeters and immediately embrace her again. 

Touch-starved. Let Gene hopefully get it out of his system by the time those two got back to Tokyo, which left Takigawa free to investigate the mess another monk found on the outskirts of the compound earlier that morning.

“Want to give walking a try?” He heard Mai drawl and she stepped backward, letting Gene take his time to get his legs going. “Good,” she whispered and kept walking toward Takigawa and the door, pulling away from Gene enough to grab his hands. “To the Onsen!”

“Not you, Sunshine,” A large hand on the top of her head stopped her in her tracks. “Wrong plumbing. Unless you _want_ to see everything we have to offer.” Takigawa waggled his eyebrows and threw a smile toward the young man now following without Mai’s aid. “I mean, I can’t speak for you, but I still have some secrets I’d like to keep.”

Gene’s face shifted from amused to neutral and then to concern when his hand found Mai’s again. “Would it be possible for Mai to just be nearby? I mean, she's a familiar face for me.”

Mai smiled brightly. "Sure! Just yell when you both get in? Monk? And then we can figure out clothes.”

Takigawa bowed and slid the onsen's shower room open for Eugene to go through. “After you, Davis-san.”

“Monk-san, I know my brother can be a lot, but what did he did to you to earn the honorifics?” Scandalized, Gene found the clothing baskets and quickly stripped. “I know he never used them.”

“Houshou Takigawa, and he used them with the rest of us. Just never with Mai,” Takigawa shrugged and wrapped a towel around his hips. “We were never sure if he knew the implications or he did know and just didn’t care.”

Deep blue eyes fixed themselves onto brown and Gene growled lowly. “He knew. Noll never bothered with societal rules so much as he cared about the work and rarely, very rarely, people. Where are we going?”

Brown eyes looked over Gene, sussing out any injuries save the scar around his neck. Takigawa could admit quietly about Gene being an "aesthetically-pleasing young man". Mai would probably have bigger issues if not for the part where Gene was supposed to be dead and cremated for the last two years. “Onsen, but showers first. Mai may be brave enough to deal with your funk, but my nose is so much more delicate.”

~*~*~

Happily sighing, Mai slid her feet into the onsen's piping hot water and looked through the thick steam to the two men on the other side of the pool, seeking out to see if they'd even bother with her, only to watch familiar indigo find her.

Gene stayed low when he made his way over to her, only to stand, smirking when the water crested his hips and drew Mai's attention to the cut that disappeared below the water. He watched her eyes rove over him and a blush erupt on her face when she realized just how busted she was.

Knowing her, she'd probably blame the heat of the onsen if he teased her any more than what he had in mind.

“Thank you for this,” he whispered, sitting down close enough to lean against her legs. 

“Okay, you two. I get being dead would make me miss touching someone, but are you trying to compensate for Oliver never touching anyone either here?”

Gene wrapped an arm around Mai’s legs and lazily looked at Takigawa, feeling languid in the heat of the onsen. “Noll is physically affectionate with those he considers close. Also, it's none of your business.”

Which was not the answer Takigawa expected. Nor did he expect Mai to agree. “He’s right, you know. It isn’t. We have bigger issues to worry about.”

“But Sunshine, you were serious-”

“Monk, I swear, if you finish that statement, I will tell Ayako everything you’ve ever vented to me about her and I’ll embellish.” Mai's glower was interrupted by her full-bodied shiver.

“What I can tell you is I'd like Mai to stay close. And it’s nice to touch somebody on this plane again. You don’t really feel, well, anything in the void.” His hand dragged lightly down Mai’s calf, leaving goosebumps in its wake. His half-smirk was missed in the steam but judging from the muscles leaping in her legs, Mai didn't seem to mind. "And if I wasn't aware of Mai's feelings for my brother, that embarrassment would have told me anyway."

And lazily dragged his hand back up her calf.

Mai looked down at the hand, wide-eyed as it repeated the gesture and cupped her ankle, using it as a brace so he could lean more weight against her knees.

Did he even know what he was doing in front of someone else?! Steam-soaked hair brushed against her thighs when he fixed that lazy gaze up at her.

Her thighs pressed together and twitched in response to the heat in that look. 

"Damn Davis twins and their dam pretty eyes." She muttered and felt a pinch on her ankle. 

The low whisper of "heard that," was dressed with an insufferable smirk that made Mai's blood heat. This smirk, in particular, was pressed against her thigh enough she could feel Gene's breath against her skin and okay, maybe she _had spent too long_ by the water. 

“So, Gene, feeling a bit more human?” She asked loudly in order to hide her blush, an effort that failed and failed hard when that hand started rubbing her ankle lightly. “We need to head to Osaka soon so we can take the train. Ayako's deposit just dropped, so we can also get you a rail pass.”

“Ayako, your Miko friend?” Gene tried slowly, his memories of the void all but present and yet so inaccessible. “That’s sweet of her.”

Mai winced and leaned back onto her hands. “May want to save that for when you see her. She’s not a huge fan of Naru, err, the idiot scientist.”

Gene squinted up at her, his expression is pensive.

So this was the Mai Noll saw. No wonder his brother was half gone. This Mai was _adorable_. “Noll. I call him Noll. Although I may need to upgrade to Naru.”

“Why Noll,” her hand returned to his hair, carding lightly through wet strands. 

“You’ve met him. He’s a Know It All.” Gene laughed, reaching for the towel folded at the edge of the onsen before he paused and stood with a smirk.

Mai yelped and clapped a hand over her eyes when she realized what part of his body she was just staring at. 

Gene ignored Takigawa's clear growl behind him and leveraged himself out of the pool after securing the towel around his hips. “You can look now, Mai. I’m decent,” he whispered to Mai. “Now, you mentioned clothes?"

~*~*~

_Five minutes._

Yasuhara Osamu waited on the platform for the Osaka train to arrive and if he timed his arrival right, he’d only have to surf the internet for five more minutes. He could then collect Mai and go back home to sleep for a few solid hours again.

Scanning the departing passengers, his jaw dropped when he watched Taniyama Mai walk to the nearest signpost, holding another man's hand.

The carbon copy of Dr. Oliver Davis, Ph.D.

Forcing himself to breathe, Osamu walked over to tap Mai on the shoulder, seeing who must have been Eugene Davis drape both arms over her shoulders while she checked her phone. 

“Hey, you two. Have a nice trip back?” He stepped in front of her, watching the pair both flinch as if he scared them both.

 _Goodness,_ they were a striking pair.

Cinnamon and indigo. Black and brunette. Eugene must have borrowed Oliver's favorite expressions (or not since they were twins) and did not return Osamu's neutral smile so much as it felt like the medium saw straight through to Osamu’s soul. Osamu's entire being hated that type of exposure.

“Yasuhara Osamu, Eugene Davis, Yasu, Gene” Mai quickly shrugged Gene off, her introduction swift before her attention returned to her phone.

Well, if he didn't have Mai's full attention, Osamu would just have to settle for Eugene's. “Hey there, handsome,” He slid into Eugene’s personal space, mindful of the man taller than him by a few centimeters. He traced a finger up Eugene’s arm to tug at his shirt, knowing exactly who that shirt belonged to. “My clothes look great on you, but... I think they would look even better on my bedroom floor.” He stepped closer, his own smirk wide when he heard Mai scoff.

“Saints save us, Yasu, one day someone’s going to beat you-” her words died when Eugene lifted his hand to tenderly cup Yasuhara’s jaw.

“‘I’d suggest ditching Taniyama-san, but I don’t think she’d mind watching,” The Davis twin purred, his face drifting toward Osamu's with a love-struck expression.

Osamu immediately yanked himself back from the pair, catching sight of Eugene’s other hand tightly clasping Mai's hand. 

That settled it, Osamu hated Eugene Davis immensely.

“Nevermind, Mai, throw him back.” His usual tactics not working, Osamu opted for blunt when Eugene bit off a grin. The medium tugged Mai up under his arm so he could watch her finish a text, Mai either okay with or unaware of the large hand cupping a hip. 

“Get over it, Yasu. You finally lost,” she groused and started tugging the both of them to the exit. “Ayako's at my flat and she has dinner waiting for us.”

“Well then, darling,” Osamu recovered enough of his own pride and energy at the mention of free food. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Let’s go. I’ll pay for the ride.”

~*~*~

The car ride back to Mai's flat did not help Osamu's mood in the face of Mai happily showering Gene Davis with her easy affections.

His mood absolutely tanked when Osamu saw the new double futon set in Mai’s flat. Not the usual single futon he'd occasionally spent nights on until one of her visions went sideways. Maybe it was for the best.

Until he saw said missing futon providing a cushion for Ayako to perch on, dinner waiting for them on the low table in front of her. He knew Mai and the Davis twin were behind him but didn’t wait since Mai told him the door should be unlocked. 

“Get ready for the shock of your life,” he tried to warn the doctor, who stood in stockinged feet and smiled when she saw Mai enter, hand in hand with the black-haired man behind her. 

“You must be Davis-san,” Ayako broke the ice as soon as she saw the pair trade shoes for house slippers. “Dr. Matsuzaki Ayako. You’re... definitely not Naru.”

“Please.” Gene held out his hand much to Mai's visible surprise, a marked difference between his treatment of the various SPR Irregulars. “Call me Eugene. Noll can be a lot but he is passionate about his work.”

“Among other things,” Ayako shook hands and then turned to Mai. “Hi, sweetheart,” she held her arms open for the young woman, using the embrace to tug Mai away from the formerly dead medium. “How are you holding up? Feel anything weird?”

Mai looked over her shoulder at Eugene, who leaned back against the wall with a fond look on his face while he watched them both. “Fear. He’s scared this is an illusion and I know he missed affection, so try not to growl at him about it like Monk did?”

Ayako looked over to Yasuhara. That explained the uni student's mood when he all but stomped in. “Did he beat Yasu at that damned game of chicken?”

“ Yasu is still pouting over it,” Mai pulled away to drift back to Eugene. “Gene, I asked for a few veggie options. I hope that’s okay?”

His arm around Mai’s waist and a kiss pressed against her hair made Ayako blush a little. And she was just watching the two being affectionate. 

“Noll is the true vegetarian, but Jesus, I missed food so much.”

Ayako’s heart shattered. She tried to level the man in front of her with his brother who left the country two years prior but failed. She thought she couldn’t tell them apart, but the differences were stark if you watched Eugene interact with Mai. Eugene was the softer, more social twin than Oliver unless Taniyama Mai was involved, and then she suspected both Davis twins were possessive little shits. A quick glance at Eugene cemented her suspicions into fact. That look was a mirrored version Oliver sported whenever younger clients tried to flirt with Mai during cases. Her eyes drifted over to Yasuhara, who was definitely pouting into his broccoli. 

Speaking of possessive shits. She had her own to deal with right now. “After your last stunt, I turned on my phone's biometrics. Mitts off.”

The pout Yasuhara threw at her screamed "I've had a bad day and you just did that to me?" He plopped next to her on the folded futon and turned liquid eyes onto her. “But Matsuzaki-san, why would you inflict such agony on a poor soul? After what I’ve dealt with for the last hour and a half,” He tucked into his meal and pointed at the duo on the other side of the table with a chopstick.

She did notice how quickly Eugene's food disappeared and Mai’s was dwindling. He clearly did miss food after all. Looking back to Yasuhara, who flatly glared at Eugene draping himself over Mai’s side. Ayako watched Mai shift a bit to get comfortable with his additional weight only to squeak when Eugene tugged her into his lap.

And then he promptly fell asleep, draped over Mai’s back like a warm, human-sized blanket.

“I know it’s weird. He's supposed to be dead and all. But they’re so cute,” Ayako gasped, gripping Yasuhara’s sleeve and shaking it a little. “Now if only Mai and Naru actually dealt with that sexual tension, we could have had this for the last two years!”

“You know he never would.” Yasuhara sneered, pulling his sleeve away from the shrine maiden to pick at his food.

“You’re right. We didn’t know a lot about the kid when he was here. I guess the universe is giving Mai another shot to confess to the right Davis brother.” Pushing her dish to the center of the table, she leaned on the table, grinning over at Mai and her new blanket. “Now the 10 million yen question. When do we tell Naru?”

“You won’t,” Eugene answered, leaning his head against Mai’s. The younger medium set her dish down to fold her hands together and leaned back against the man behind her. “For all intents and purposes, I’m dead. I don’t know when the soul booted from this body will either rediscover it or how the spell that revived me actually works. I just know this body doesn't belong to me and I shouldn’t be here. Mai and I will handle any communication with SPR.” 

They thought he had been asleep.

Mai continued where Eugene left off. “I’ll tell Lin tomorrow during our check-in call. I do have a feeling he knows something isn't quite right already.”

“Telling Noll will risk my brother’s health, so we can count on Lin’s cooperation for the time being,” Eugene added once she finished speaking.

“You know about our monthly calls,” Mai shrugged. “We decided weekly calls were the best option when well,” she looked at the faded bloodstains on the wall. “Lin’s concerned about my lack of training.”

Eugene’s arms tightened around her. “I will you with that,” he snuggled against her neck and inhaled, grateful he’s able to do so the second time around. After the others left, he’d tell her just how nice it felt to feel her aura slipping along his own.

“So what’s with the touching?” Osamu slammed his chopsticks onto the table, glaring at his best friend and her newest companion.

“Ignore him,” Ayako finished her dinner. “He’s jealous. Aw, poor ‘Love of my life’, come here and let me love you.” She held her arms open wide and waited.

Yasu’s eyes opened wide before the puzzle pieces clicked into place.

Her clever revenge for his phone prank. “I don’t want to look like an ass-”

Mai draped more weight back onto Eugene, he could hold them both up. “He absolutely does look like an ass.”

“It’s okay,” Eugene offered in consolation. “I get it. I've just always seen you in danger and with how things were in the void, I'm sorry. It's just nice to touch someone again. Mai’s aura helps me feel like I’m in… one piece. I know this doesn't make any sense, but it’s hard to explain.” He leaned his chin against the top of her head in hopes maybe she’d hear the rest of his thoughts.

If he tried hard enough, maybe she _could_.

Mai's hand lifted to awkwardly pet his head. _I don’t mind_ , the whisper surprised him.

Oh, clever girl. He _knew_ her wavelength aligned with his own but he hadn't been sure of how close. “Just don’t pretend I”m Noll,” he looked down at her and winked, watching her cheeks once again blush pink. “Any questions?”

Mai took the opportunity to climb out of his lap and tried to hide her blush. “I um, need to go wash my face,” she fled, leaving the amused trio behind.

“Eugene-san,” Ayako leaned against the table, an arm supporting her chin as she watched their new addition look toward the washroom. It looked as if a piece of him was missing and he wanted to burn the door down to take it back. “She has an IUD, but condoms are in her closet. Two shelves from the top on the left.”

Both men snapped their attention to her, Yasuhara’s jaw dropped. Ayako was never that forthright with well, anyone.

Eugene merely leaned back, his arms behind him on the tatami mat, and offered an easy, confident grin, a gentle version of his own brother’s preferred smirk. "Ayako, you assume me improper."

“Yeah, you’re a Davis alright,” she answered her own unspoken question and stood. “Sorry, Yasu, darling, but there’s no room for you on that futon.”

“Ayako!” Mai screeched from behind Eugene, ignoring the hand wrapping around her ankle to lightly drag her back to the group. “That’s private!”

Eugene reached up to grab Mai's flailing hand so he could tug her back onto his lap. “Mai, she’s teasing. We can fill them in and maybe between the four of us, we’ll figure out a plan.”

~*~*~

The phone buzzing in his pocket kept Houshou Takigawa company through the temple compound and into the forest where he followed another monk armed with a notepad and flashlight. 

“This way, _senpai_ ,” the younger monk stopped and waited for Takigawa to catch up. “We noticed the smell yesterday and thought maybe it was an animal, but then,” falling silent, the monk stood at the doors of a seldom-used smaller temple and winced, looking a little nauseous.

The smell, cloying, sweetly-foul was enough to tell him exactly what they’d found.

Decomposition.

He pulled a bandana over his nose, no use having flies up his nose again, and slid the door open and flicked on the flashlight. “Let’s get some light in here?” He asked, watching the younger initiate hesitate at the door. “They’re dead, man, you are more powerful than they are. And call the police, they’ll need to see this.”

Ignoring his vibrating phone, he ran the flashlight over the temple’s dirt floor. He noticed the lines of white chalk and the smells of sulfur and ozone over incense and age.

He stopped at the edge, not willing to cross the sigils, the flashlight's beam running over an intricate set in the circle. He ran a booted toe through the chalk to break the circle.

At least he could breathe a little easier knowing he wasn’t calling a spell down on his head. He could see two sets of remains, one in a body bag, another a familiar black head of hair.

“Morimiya Takeshi, what did you get yourself into, friend?” He snapped a couple of pictures of the sigils and corpse placement with his phone before he left the temple for the walkway outside.

“The police are on their way.” The wobbly initiate, Yoshiyuki Daisuke, if Takigawa's memory served, answered. “Can we close the doors? It feels disrespectful to leave them open.”

“Kid, what happened in there was disrespectful.” Takigawa closed his camera on his phone to see the numerous text messages from Yasuhara. A quick skim was the reason he made a phone call from a number he stole from Mai’s contacts. He could only hope the man on the other end would actually answer.

The call connected.

“Dr. Koujo Lin speaking. Who is this?” The deep voice made Takigawa’s soul sigh a little. The onmyouji would have had a small heart attack seeing what he just did. 

“Houshou Takigawa, my apologies for the time, but I needed to know something important and you felt like the right man to ask.”

“Houshou-san,” the sorcerer must have smiled, his voice shifting into something warmer that felt like a balm. 

No wonder Mai enjoyed her weekly check-in calls when they felt a bit like an aural hug. “Lin, I have two corpses at my temple and one looks like it spent the last few years frozen. So I have to ask, did you or did you not cremate Eugene Davis?”

Silence.

Takigawa felt the energy around him shift and brighten with new spiritual energy. Oh, there's the Shiki to investigate. “Nice,” he breathed into the phone and watched the wafts of greens and shimmering blues dance around the temple, making a quick circle around himself before they disappeared. “Secondary question are those the Shiki that follow Mai around?”

“No. We cremated Eugene. His remains were interred in West Kensington. Did you get a closer look at the remains?”

“Are you sure the Davises cremated his actual body?” Takigawa pressed. Because he could see the gray corpse and it definitely looked like the man who kept one of the temple's futons busy for a few days.

“Houshou, does this have anything to do with the graverobbing?” The call's tone shifted once more, Koujo apparently getting the information from the newly returned Shiki and his own findings. “Shit.”

Houshou balked before laughing. “You’re no longer sure. I know you’re going to hate this part, but I have to ask or Mai would skin me.”

“Say it, Monk.” Koujo snapped, his voice dropping low in volume. Someone must have been nearby that he would rather not include in the conversation.

“Do not tell Oliver Davis,” he requested. “We'll handle it. Thank you for your time.” Rather than deal with an upset onmyouji, Takigawa ended the call before Lin could get any other words in. Thankfully, the _onmyouji_ couldn’t do anything from over 10,000km away. 

Takigawa would bet his bass guitar that the ashes the Davises interred did not belong to Eugene Davis. He would even go so far to suspect the remaining twin felt something wasn’t quite right but chances are, had no business or reason to ask. 

Looking back into the temple’s darkness, an amazing way to hide the horrific tableau within, Takigawa reread Yasuhara’s messages complaining about how he hated Eugene Davis for beating him at his own game. And then he saw the messages regarding the desecration of spiritualists’ graves. 

_Dammit_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm new here. Comments are grand, but new friends are better if you're over 21!


	4. Chapter 4

“Remember, next Tuesday will be a completely useless quiz about the effects of fear on the human brain, but since all of you can’t seem to wait and I know you won’t bother with studying, class is dismissed,” Dr. Davis leaned back against the desk at the bottom of the sloped classroom cum auditorium and let his eyes unfocus long enough to turn the departing students into one large faceless mass.

Save three, two lingering students and one familiar face he never expected to see in Cambridge willingly. He’d add the oddity to his ever-growing list of “not quite right” that frankly, he was going to blame entirely on Mai Taniyama. Maybe he’d consider a short sabbatical and put that list to bed once and for all. Until he could lay that foundation, he’d deal with the strawberry blonde haunting his recently-ended class.

Madoka Mori, who stood from her spot in the back row, going against the flow of students all but running from his class and made her way down to his desk, lacking the standard bounce that usually irritated him.

“Madoka,” he greeted, grabbing the folders on the desk and tidying them up for the next session. “I don’t recall seeing your name on my roster.”

The strawberry blonde lifted herself to sit on the desk, carefully avoiding dislodging anything else. “Got bored in the office and wasn’t up for investigating grave robberies.”

Which meant she willingly rode not one but two trains from West Kensington to Cambridge to avoid dealing with a certain onmyouji who was still actively ignoring her for his caseload. “You can teach this course,” he nodded to the two women lingering in the seat rows, one he knew was biding her time between the sessions, the other had that hopeful look on his face he actively tried to discourage due to the professor/student dynamic. He rolled his eyes at Madoka, who stifled a giggle. “If you’re not here for my next session, I suggest you leave.”

“But Dr. Davis-”

“Is consulting right now,” Madoka interrupted, pressing a toe against Oliver’s side.

Which immediately gave the student the wrong impression. But he could work with it. He waited for the woman to leave, the second one looking up and removing her earbuds in confusion.

“Gates, you’re fine to stay. What you hear will be denied, mind you.”

“Sure, professor.” The student put her earbuds back in and got to work on what he suspected was a paper.

“You handled that so much easier than you used to,” Madoka noted and dropped her foot from Oliver’s thigh. “I suppose I need a topic for a consult.”

“You can teach the next session if you so choose. Half of the students are here due to my appearance and the rest just need the credit. If SPR is investigating grave robberies, it’s a slow day. Still avoiding Koujo?” He asked pointedly. If he had to entertain a bored Madoka, he might as well enjoy half of it. 

“He shooed me out because it’s that time of the week where he locks his office and turns on the external white noise so we can’t listen in.” She pouted, letting her ballet flats dangle from her toes. “I have no idea who’s so important for the privacy, but I sort of hate and admire whoever they are.”

He sat down on the other end of the desk and leaned back. He knew about the check-in calls in that Lin mentioned a weekly call, but he never specified to who.

Or why he never used the office landlines for said calls.

“Like, why would he have two cell phones on an international plan when he only owns one phone, Noll?” Madoka pulled out a tablet and brought up a .pdf of Linn's phone bill.

Much to Oliver's surprise. “You were invading his privacy.” He pushed her tablet back to her and slid a folder into his messenger bag.

“I was curious.”

“Is that what they call jealousy these days?” He snarked at her and leaned up against his own desk.

“Noll, shut up."

But now he was going to focus on that one question. Who was so important they deserved an hour each week and with such high security? That Lin felt shouldn’t be shared? His gut whispered a name he immediately tossed aside. Dreams and instincts were not enough to warrant such delicate handling.

And only served to annoy him because why would Mai bother with Lin in the first place?

~*~*~*~*~

Mai ended her check-in call and immediately winced when she saw Eugene’s blank face looking at her from the other side of their shared backseat. 

“You didn’t tell him.” He brought up the entire topic she didn’t even address on the call.

“You heard at least half of that conversation, it didn’t come up!” She shrugged and heard a soft click before her seatbelt gave. “What are you doing?”

“Mai, not now,” If she were being honest with herself, Mai would have sworn after three days of almost constant touching, Eugene would be sick of her or at least want some space. Not that anyone could tell in the taxi as he tugged her against his side in the backseat and only then did he relax against the car door. 

He seemed tense all day and she had no idea why except he was reluctant to let her go meet a client on her own like she usually did. 

Maybe it was because he wasn’t quite ready to be alone yet.

She leaned against him and breathed in the scent of her own flat and lemongrass soap on his clothing. Well, Yasuhara’s clothing that she was now perma-borrowing until she could make a store run for him. A quick look over the medium oh so warm next to her gave her the brief opportunity to just bask. It was nice when someone understood your abilities without having to explain them.

“When Noll was here, did he use an alias?” A tap against her thigh knocked her out of her lapse in concentration. 

“Yeah, Kazuya Shibuya.” She answered and stopped, a laugh twitching on her lips. Did Oliver even try to come up with an alias or was it just the first two words he saw when he landed in Tokyo?

“Number or Shibuya,” Eugene translated. “No. I’ll come up with something else.” He went back to looking out the car window, a large hand reaching out open-palmed. Mai took it watching his thumb rub lazy circles on her palm.

When he put it that way, Mai could see why it was a stupid alias after all. “It’s been a couple of days, but why are you so… physical?” 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to ask if it was okay to be all… over you.” Indigo eyes focused solely on her with no movements to look at their conjoined hands.

“I mean, I would have hit you if it weren’t fine. But I wanted to ask.,” she ended in a whisper because hell, she had no room to talk while sharing a bed with Yasuhara repeatedly and they weren’t even in a relationship!

“Mai, if it bothers you, I can stop,” The thumb stopped as he relaxed his hand, letting her figure out that he wasn’t the only one holding on.

“I just figured you’d want some space after the last couple of days,” she might as well address the issue as they had at least a good hour left of the taxi ride. “I don’t mind, but I thought-”

He cut her off. “Mai, it’s a two-part issue. One, I’ve been in your head. I watched you suffer through years of visions and I couldn’t do a damn thing except watch. I felt your terror and I could do was just… smile and point and tell you to watch and hope and pray you’d come back the next time. Now, I have a body. Which brings me to the second part. My feelings aside, I think whoever this was, they had a lover. My body wants to touch you all the damn time and I can’t say I’m exactly resistant.”

Mai dropped his hand in shock. He set his own on the seat and stared at it momentarily before catching her eyes with his own.

“But we have a case and you and I can discuss physicality later. When it’s time, introduce me as Chikara Mamoru.”

Strength and Protection.

Her face heated at the implications and she squeaked when he noticed her blush. Picking the large hand up again, she squeezed it with her own. “It’s nice, Mamoru-kun.”

“Thanks, I hate it less than Kazuya Shibuya.” He playfully sneered and tugged her hand over his own lap, forcing Mai to drape herself against his side and let him drop an arm over her side to tuck her against him. “Now, tell me about this case? I imagine it isn’t new.”

“No, the call came in two days before I went to Mt. Koya for you. Working couple complained of what sounds like hooves in the house. Mikata then said she saw what looked like a pregnant child trying to enter their bedroom and it was only due to a Buddha statue and a line of salt that they even felt safe sleeping.”

“Any insights from that gut of yours,” he took the folder Mai pulled out of her bag after she shuffled away enough to snag the bag from the other side of the taxi floor. “No, no, come back.”

“You big baby,” she muttered and let him pull her back into that warmth Naru would have never dared to give her.

Oh, that was a dangerous thought that she was going to stop right there. Swallowing back the simmering anxiety and watching Eugene look up from the file, those eyes darting over her face in the hunt for something. “Be happy to show you otherwise,” he remarked, feeling the heat shoot through the both of them courtesy of the grip he had on her hand. “You’re so cute when you blush,” he teased and went back to reading. “The home is relatively new, you think this was a summoned yokai?”

“The entire neighborhood was a battleground about a century ago, so it’s understandable that something is… handling the dead. They reported a neighbor passed away about a month ago, but when they found him, he was… not all there.”

Both mediums grimaced when he flipped the document over and saw the pictures Yasuhara included.

Mai always hated this part. It was one of the reasons she lightly missed the official JSPR, but when Madoka left, she took JSPR with her. She now knew just how much was filtered before she was included in cases. 

“I’m impressed you all are handling cases without financial backing.” He closed the folder and handed it back to her. “Noll would have a small fit if he knew. Which means you’re… you haven’t told Lin about this at all, have you?”

“No,” she said and buried her face against his side, falling silent.

Brown eyes in the rearview mirror met blue and squinted at the sight he saw in his backseat.

“Mai, you understand those calls aren’t to monitor you so much as it’s Lin trying to support you, even if he’s going about it badly. Ayako and Monk, they’re good, but they don’t understand what you’re going through.” He ran a hand along the tips of her hair and brushed at the tumultuous aura surrounding her. “Lin does. He trained Noll after all.”

“And you,” she said, which he felt more than heard. “He trained you.”

“Exactly. He needs to know you’re still working cases when something goes sideways.”

He heard the sigh and felt Mai deflate, going limp against his side and letting him tuck her closer. She didn’t miss the definitive “when”.

“Fifteen minutes.” The driver announced as a courtesy.

“Thank you,” Eugene answered and leaned his head against Mai’s own. “What are their names?”

“Morishita Yuki and Mikoto. They’ve been married for three years and this is their first home.” Her voice low and sounding exhausted, Mai reopened the folder to the picture of the couple.   
“Basically, we’ll swap homes with them. They’ll take Ayako’s flat, we take theirs. Yasu will meet us tomorrow morning, provided we’re alive, and then the next evening, Ayako and Monk will take over until you and I can replace them.”

“Isn’t Yasuhara in Uni? And what about your job?”

“Yasu’s classes are predominately online these days, so he mainly works and takes measurements once an hour. Since his spiritual energy is that of your average human, spirits tend to ignore him. Ichihara-san doesn’t mind when I work cases. She sort of just accepted it when she hired me and pays stupid well for what’s basically cleaning.”

He watched Mai contemplate the mentioned Ichihara-san and wondered if she knew that he knew her boss was definitely a witch of some sort. He wasn’t supposed to know Ichihara Yuuko’s name, but he definitely knew her, having stumbled upon her shop the last he was in Japan.

Alive, anyway. Eugene bit his lip, well aware of Mai watching and uncaring with a sudden bout of nerves. “Because I am afraid this may become an issue, did I interrupt anything important between you and Osamu?”

“He’s my friend.” She corrected after a moment.

He tutted and slowly nodded. “Sure put up a large fuss for a ‘friend’. Noll doesn’t mind him as he doesn’t pose a threat, but I think he’s not my biggest fan.”

“Of course not. You beat him at his own game. You also have no room to talk. Look at us right now.”

“I’m also very obviously flirting with you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you watching either,” he smirked. Mai tensed up so hard he’d be afraid she’d shatter if he didn’t actually know her.

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh. But I also understand this topic has a time and place and it has to be after this case. Can you put with me for that long, Taniyama-san?” Eugene let her pull away to the other side of the backseat for appearances’ sake and watched her nose crinkle as she registered just what he said.

“Okay, yeah, I hate that, but professionalism.” They both felt the car slow to a halt. “Ready?”

Eugene opened his door first, allowing Mai to scoot over the backseat and exit on his side also. She paid the driver and then straightened her clothing at the house gate. 

He watched Mai take a deep, steadying breath and stood close behind her to help bolster her visible nerves before she swung the gate open. 

The couple met them on the front stoop and Mai halted, the overwhelming feeling of dread swamping her just in time to feel a warm body behind her, a hand closing over her own with a deep, low “breathe through it, Mai, it will pass.”

“Um, miss, are you okay,” the woman closest to them stood and stepped forward, the short bob marking her as Morishita Mikoto.

Mai felt her heart squeeze and felt the squeeze on her hand when Eugene smiled down at her. 

“Remember, the sooner we help them, the sooner they can be adorable again,” he reminded and introduced himself after Mai did.

“Taniyama Mai, Morishita-san, and I’m okay,” she bowed, feeling the cool aura of the man behind her sing along her skin, knowing her own did the same when their emotions ran high. 

She felt scared for this couple. “Can you tell us what’s going on?”

~*~*~*~

Koujo Lin flicked off the white noise generator stationed outside of his office. Burying his face in his hands after Mai ended their latest check-in earlier than she usually did, he groaned out his frustration.

Normally the calls were simple. Check on her powers, listen very closely to what she said when he would ask how things were going. Normally, Mai would return the volley with her own questions, but today’s call felt like she was on edge and every word held the double-meaning of “none of your damn business”.

He rubbed his jaw to work away the soreness earned from grinding his teeth in frustration. Nothing about this call was normal.

To be fair, nothing was ever normal when it came to Taniyama Mai. He knew her powers were growing, the reports from Madoka confirmed this information, but she never actively told him just _how_ her powers were growing.

The breeze going past his face, a gentle bump from one of the shikigami returning from it’s journey to Japan, because while he respected Taniyama, he didn’t trust her to tell him the truth. She had a history of being selective with the information she willingly shared.

His familiar confirmed what he suspected between Takigawa’s call and Mai’s vagueness on the phone.

She lied to him. Had been for the entire two-hour call. If he could trust the feeling swooping through his gut, this was going to blow up in her face and he wasn’t sure if he was skilled enough to help save her.

Without telling Noll. Telling Noll was the last resort.

Struck with inspiration, he logged onto his bank account. After all, there was no harm in looking for nonstop flights to Tokyo. His caseload was surprisingly light and he had some time off coming up. It might as well be spent overseas, no?

If anyone asked, he was merely taking family time.

~*~*~*~

Compared to the full setups he knew BSPR and consequently his brother did for each case, the unofficial JSPR skeleton crew ran a lean ship. Not to mention a high-dollar ship because if he knew his infrared cameras, the eight small FLIRs cost someone on the team a pretty yen. Eugene watched Yasuhara flip open the laptop to load up the video monitoring software. Mai plugged in 8 small Bluetooth dongles into the hub while he quietly marveled over the setup. A second monitor provided extra real estate so they could monitor 4 cameras on each screen. 

Noll would have been jealous due to the use of outdated equipment because BSPR had a surprisingly limited equipment budget.

Someone here had no problems bankrolling this little endeavor, and a quick look at Ayako, who played the point of contact for the couple, he bet she was the one who funded this little group.

From what Mai shared during the car ride over and knowing the Doctor Miko purchased his own JR Pass, Ayako could afford it.

A second laptop flipped open for Houshou to bring up the audio recorder, to which all eight microphones in each room could feed to that program and one person could keep an eye on all eight streams.

“So no temperature monitoring?” He randomly asked once it appeared the crew was finished with the setup. 

“No need,” Osamu looked at him over his glasses’ frames. Tapping the monitor, he pointed at the corner of each video feed. “The FLIRs tell us the ambient temperature and if any cooler apparitions appear, we can see them. This saves us from falling into any sort of wells and helps minimize the danger some of us,” he nodded toward a blushing Mai, who glared back at the insinuation, “tend to get into.”

Eugene bit back his grin because he knew just how many times said medium had fallen into wells. Five.

“We still love you, Sunshine, but you’re a bit of a ghost magnet,” Takigawa pat Mai on the head and pressed her into a seat. “You and Handsome here have the first shift?”

Eugene looked up to see an easy smile sent his way. “I guess Handsome is me?”

Houshou elbowed Osamu lightly. “This one is Royal Terror. She’s Sunshine, and Ayako is…”

“Monk, don’t you dare-”

“My love, she will-”

“No more sex if you finish that comment,” Ayako stalked up to the Monk, who held his hands up in surrender when she dropped and pressed her hand against the apex of his legs. 

“Get a room, you two,” Mai rolled her eyes and threw her keys at them in farewell. “Yasu, we’ll see you in the morning?” She then looked at Osamu, who leaned against the table next to her laptop. 

“You sure? Twelve hours is a long shift for you both” He tried to be logical about asking to stay, but he just didn’t quite feel up for leaving Mai with a resurrected medium for longer than a couple of hours.

“Go home,” she ordered, tossing on a pair of monitor headphones and glaring at her friend. “Get some sleep,” she grabbed a notebook and pointedly ignored him.

He sighed and turned his attention to Eugene, who slid into the second chair and held the second headset before deciding to address the lost-looking researcher. “We’ll call you if something happens. Even if I have to steal her phone, okay?”

“Why does she trust you so much?” He finally got a chance to ask, since Mai was very much ignoring both of them.

The heated look Eugene shot back at Mai made Yasuhara’s skin crawl with jealousy. He wasn’t so proud to admit when he couldn’t just ignore how this supposedly dead medium somehow shows up, is all over one of his favorite, lie, ~~favored~~ , lie, ~~lusted after~~ people, and she just… _lets him._

“She’s... my missing piece,” Eugene answered and put the headset over his ears.

Osamu inhaled sharply, unable to interpret the look on Gene’s face before the medium turned back to the monitors. The dismissal didn’t hurt as much as he expected.

Silence reigned over the small base before Eugene felt the thump on the table and saw Mai slump over her laptop out of the corner of his eye.

He grabbed a notepad to write down his observations, as he clearly didn’t summon her into the aether and he didn’t feel steady enough to see if he could find her on his own. So he would wait.

And protect her as much as he could from this side of the realm.

~*~*~

The eerily lit aether surrounded Mai, will-o-wisps dotting the odd outlines of the home she knew her body sat in, but her soul never bothered to sit still for long. She looked around for a familiar face and realized Eugene must not be able to join her now given his soul was anchored to the living plane.

This would be so different without his guidance.

Without him.

Taking a few steps, she walked toward the nearest will-o-wisp and saw a form crouched down nearby.

The form took a better shape when she realized just what she was witnessing.

This wasn’t of the home she was in.

It was a battlefield, where a gaki youkai sat on a corpse, shoveling the innards into its gaping maw before it turned beady eyes toward Mai.

_Dammit. That wasn’t good._

She tripped over another corpse and found herself sprawling on the tatami-mats of the Morishita home, except it wasn’t their home as it felt older.

Mai wasn’t alone.

A woman stood in the middle of the room, a blood-soaked sickle in hand. Blood dripped onto the soaked tatami mats when the woman stepped aside, an eye on the corpse in front of her.

That looked an awful lot like Takigawa, even if Mai knew it wasn’t. She gently stepped around to see the tableau in front of her, only to feel frozen in place by malice alone.

The woman was looking right at her, lip lifting in a snarl and sickle lifting to strike a killing blow. “You won’t take her from me again,” she screamed and brought the blade down across Mai’s face.

~*~*~

“Mai,” Eugene called when Mai jerked up and out of her chair, blood coating the laptop’s monitor and her face as she gasped on the floor and lifted a shaking hand to her face. He grabbed her hand and knelt next to her to hold it away. “Mai, breathe, I need you to breathe, okay?” Where the hell did the blood come from, she was just supposed to be walking as they did back then!

She gasped and blinked the blood out of her eyes, only to squint one eye up at him. “It’s not what we thought,” she groped for her bag and yanked out a towel she kept in there for reasons just like this one. “It’s not mine,” she felt terror course through her, the memory of the blade across her face still fresh even if it didn’t physically hurt her. “Well, it’s not physically mine.”

Eugene blanched and yanked the towel from her hand to help blot blood off of her face. He breathed through his own fears and concerns because if it wasn’t physically her blood - “Mai, call Lin. Right now.” He wiped off the last vestiges of scarlet from her face and then rubbed what was left on his hands off on his borrowed jeans. He grabbed her phone and flicked the screen open to find Lin’s last text message. 

And hit “call”.

“You’re overreacting, I’m fine-” She countered, her face red with dashes of pink from the abrasive, overbleached towel. Her eyes caught the silver scar across Eugene’s neck and it halted what she wanted to say next and gave Eugene an opening he furiously took.

Neither heard the call connect or Lin’s concerned “Mai, what is it,” greeting.

“You are tracing blood from the aether, you are not fine. Do not lie to me, I can fucking feel it-” Furious indigo met scared cinnamon eyes and both gasped when they felt the breeze of a shikigami float between them. 

It was just enough of a distraction to hear Koujo’s incredibly clear and very angry, “Mai, who the hell is that and why the hell am I just hearing about tracing things from the aether?” 

Eugene grabbed the phone before Mai could and kept his tumultuous gaze locked on her. “Lin, I don’t care how you do it, but we need you in Tokyo. Mai’s in trouble.” He hung up and called Yasuhara.

“Yasuhara, get your ass back here. This case just got worse.”

~*~*~

_Wrong_.

_Something is not good._

_Get on the plane._

**_Please._ **

Sure, the email telling the SPR heads that he needed at least two weeks to handle some last-minute family issues that arose over the last few hours was incredibly rude and last minute of him, but slamming supplies into a bag to last a week and summoning a cab to Haneda was far more important to him than office ethics.

This wasn’t a vacation.

This was more an extended SPR case left unsolved for two damn years and his guilt was a mere shadow of the actual fear coursing through his veins because Koujo's own familiars kept sounding alarms of “bad” and “wrong” and “she’s in trouble”.

He missed the set of deep blue eyes watching him quickly pack up his office and run for the arrived cab. In his haste, he missed seeing Oliver Davis slip into his own office and run a hand along the surface of Koujo’s desk.

He didn’t see Oliver sit down in his chair, close his eyes, and everything…

_Fell away._

**Author's Note:**

> Um, read the tags.


End file.
